Panasonic's Lumix ZS30 an excellent Wi-Fi-enabled compact megazoom

October 7, 2013

Transcript

Hey, there.
I'm Josh Goldman with CNET and this is a look at the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS30, which basically takes the features and performance of the excellent ZS20 from 2012 and adds to it some handy Wi-Fi features.
So for starters you still have a nice 20x zoom lens, a 3-inch high-res touchscreen and inside an 18-megapixel high-sensitivity MOS sensor.
Now the sensor combined with a powerful
processor and a high-speed auto focusing system gets you fast shooting performance and very good photo and video quality, though neither are significantly better than its predecessor.
Its intelligent auto mode is smart enough to get you the snapshots you want, but you also get fun shooting modes for filters and effects, easy panoramas and high-speed slow-mo video.
And for those who want more control, there are semi-manual and manual modes too.
Controls and use are overall good and despite
its compact size it's comfortable to use in part because of the right hand grip.
The only real issue here is that the power and Wi-Fi buttons are a bit too easy to hit accidentally.
Now like a lot of its competitions the ZS30 has built-in GPS and Wi-Fi, but Panasonic added NFC as well making pairing and sharing with NFC-enabled Android devices really easy.
You simply launch the app and tap the camera to your phone and a Wi-Fi connection is established
between them.
The app can be used for remote control of the camera as well as viewing and transferring its contents to your device.
You can also tap to send which is pretty great.
For those with Apple devices you get most of the same features.
You basically just lose the NFC stuff.
There are some minor nitpicks, but in general this is an impressive compact megazoom.
I'm Josh Goldman and that's the Panasonic Lumix ZS30.